February 1 is the deadline for broadcast stations licensed to communities in New York and several other states to place their Annual EEO Public File Report in their Public Inspection File and post the report on their station website. Under the FCC's EEO Rule, all radio and television station employment units ("SEUs"), regardless of staff size, must afford equal opportunity to all qualified persons and practice nondiscrimination in employment.
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Stations (SEUs) with five or more full-time employees ("Nonexempt SEUs") must also comply with the FCC's three-prong outreach requirements. Specifically, Nonexempt SEUs must (i) broadly and inclusively disseminate information about every full-time job opening, except in exigent circumstances, (ii) send notifications of full-time job vacancies to referral organizations that have requested such notification, and (iii) earn a certain minimum number of EEO credits based on participation in various non-vacancy-specific outreach initiatives ("Menu Options") suggested by the FCC, during each of the two-year segments (four segments total) that comprise a station's eight-year license term. These Menu Option initiatives include, for example, sponsoring job fairs, participating in job fairs, and having an internship program.
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Stations with five or more full-time employees must prepare and place their Annual EEO Public File Report in the Public Inspection Files and on the websites of all stations comprising the SEU (if they have a website) by the anniversary date of the filing deadline for that station's license renewal application. The Annual EEO Public File Report summarizes the SEU's EEO activities during the previous 12 months, and the licensee must maintain adequate records to document those activities.
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You can access more information from our friends at the DC Law firm of Shaw Pittman here.
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You can access the EEO Primer prepared by the DC Law Firm of Shaw Pittman here.
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You can see the FCC FAQs on this issue here.
The actual FCC rule 73.2080 (c) can be found here.